Country: Antigua and Barbuda Government: Parliamentary democracy Capital: Saint Johns Official languages: English Population 84,522
And we revive this blog eight months later with an aritst from the Caribian island of Antigua, mr Slinger Francisco, better known as Mighty Sparrow or "The Calypso King of the World". Here in the soothing 70's organ based balad "Only a fool". The video features the Mighty Sparrow in a wonderful outfit on the postcard-beautiful island of Antigua, don't miss!
Country: Angola Government: Presidential republic Capital: Luanda Official languages: Portoguese Population 15,941,000
With a three months delay one might think that I've gone to Angola, started a band and is about to shamelessly use this blog (and our many readers) to promote my very own music live and direct from Angola. That is not the case!
I've just been lazy, and well never really remembered this mission at the right moment, in front of the computer, with not much else to do than browse the net for some cool tunes. Anyways I've done some googling now, and did not come up with much else than some generic "african" music and plenty of cuban sounding music. Not bad at all, just that I do not like to listen to it.
So in the end I decided to promote a song by Bonga, a mellow tune about some problems of his or Angola is my guess. Cool name too, Bonga!
Country: Andorra Government: Parliamentary democracy Capital: Andorra la Vella Official languages: Catalan Population 71,822
Next up is Andorra, the worlds 16:th smallest country, with around 70,000 people of which quite a lot seems to be doing music if you beleive myspace.Unfortionally, the majority of these songs where either progressive metal or over-emotinal trubadours. But just when I started to give up I ran into Comenge who's careless mix of lofi, indie and electronica made it all worthit. Best song: Crisalida.
Country: Algeria Government: Presidential republic Capital: Algiers Official languages: Arabic Population: 33.3 million
While browsing the net for music from Algeria I'm happy to discover that I already have an Algerian song on my computer as a part of a "best of" collection from an old friend. The genre is rai and the artist is Cheb Kahled. The guy is really successful though and making a good effort with lyrics promoting women's rights and democracy. So it says on Wikipedia at least!
Not much luck with some of the other popular music from Algeria, it's with great joy I start to listen to a band called Gnawa Diffusion. Check out the song Saharagga and come back here and say you don't like those beats.
My personal favorite - a nice mix of some traditional Algerian instruments and a good portion of reggae - is included in the post.
Country: Albania Government: Parliamentary republic Capital: Tirana Official languages: Albanian Population: 3.6 million
I started out by browsing through my rather limited collection of Balkan songs but all artist were from either Romania or Serbia so I started to google instead.
After a couple of hit and miss ones I found the clarinetist Laver Bariu who's here laying quickfingered and mourning melodies over a minimalistic one-chord drone:ish wall of sound.
And another more upbeat and non-instrumental.
And to not totally dedicate this post to old men with old instruments I'll also include Albanias own destinys child, Elvana Gjata.
Country: Afghanistan Government: Islamic Republic Capital: Kabul Official languages: Pashto and Persian (Dari) Population: 32 million
Getting Afghanistan as the first country for our project seemed to be quite the rocky start. As it turns out there are quite a few good resources on the web, and Afghan music even has it very own Elvis going by the name of Ahmed Zahir.
After spending some time listening to the guy, I find myself to prefer what seems to be his early work from the 1950s (when radio spread in Afghanistan). These arrangements are quite low-key and lo-fi, with only a guy singing to a few traditional instruments and something that sounds like an organ. Later on it evolved into something that I would expect from pretty much any artist in the region, and that's not really to my likings.
The Russian invasion in 1979, followed by civil war and then the Taliban regime (banning all forms of music) have had a negative impact on all Afghan music. Since the American lead invasion in 2001 a lot have changed and this leads me to one of the new genres that is picking up pace - Afghan Hip hop.
Currently it seems to be a small, but ambitious community surrounding the music. And I've seen ambitious examples of Western gangsta-style in Thug Kabul City and then the more humorous Afghan Rap For Dr Dry. Not to forget Yar e Wafadar!
While listening to some more random Afghan music, I realize that the probability to find music that I like more than that of Ahmed Zahir are getting slimmer by the minute. So let's sum things up with some basic facts about Afghanistan, and if you have not done so already, please do tune into a nice tribute (also see below) to Zahir.
Country: Antigua and Barbuda
